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Coronavirus Outbreak; America's Choice 2020; China Trying to Get Its Economy Back on Track; Violence Erupts at Turkish-Greek Border; Biden's Wife Blocks Animal Rights Protestors. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired March 05, 2020 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, while the coronavirus continues to ease in China, around the world new cases are surging, causing health officials to take increasingly harsh containment measures.

Authorities in China say their efforts to curb transmission has paid off. But to shut down the virus, they almost shut down the economy as well.

And watch Joe run: after cleaning up on Super Tuesday, Joe Biden now in the express lane for the Democratic nomination for president, he has done it with the most unlikely of campaigns.

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VAUSE: The number of coronavirus infections is dropping in China, the disease is spreading rapidly elsewhere around the world. There is growing concern the virus may have hit another cruise ship, this one off the U.S. coast near San Francisco.

Meantime, Italy has taken some extreme measures to contain this outbreak, the biggest in Europe. Schools are now closed nationwide, many sporting events are canceled.

And Iran struggling to give proper burials to its coronavirus victims, many mosques will be empty for Friday prayers.

Worldwide there been more than 95,000 cases confirmed, the global death toll almost 3,300. The vast majority in China. On Wednesday, Japan recorded its biggest increase in new infections in a single day. CNN's Blake Essig joins us now.

Blake, what are the options there for the government now to try and deal with the sudden spike in cases?

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, just yesterday the minister of health, welfare and labor announced 33 new cases in Japan; that now adds up to more than 1,000 cases across the country and, of course, that does include more than 700 cases as a result of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Now as this increase comes, Japan's prime minister and his administration are working on the legal framework to put forth legislation to declare a state of emergency here in Japan.

If a state of emergency is declared, it would allow municipalities to ask residents to stay indoors. It would allow them to close schools and public facilities as well as build medical facilities to help deal with the potential surge in patients.

Earlier today, I actually spoke with a researcher who has been sequestered by the Japanese government to do contract tracing to figure out how this virus has been spread here in Japan.

While the numbers of cases not associated with Diamond Princess around 300, he believes the number of actual confirmed cases in Japan is much higher. Take a listen.

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HIROSHI NISHIURA, HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY: At the moment, to confirm the case count, it is between 200 and 300 in Japan, excluding those who are diagnosed on the Diamond Princess. That 200 to 300 means that the actual number with infected individuals is on the order of over a few thousand.

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ESSIG: John, the idea that the number of actual cases beyond what has been confirmed, leads one to believe that these increases that we saw just yesterday are likely to continue to occur in the days and potentially weeks to come.

VAUSE: Blake, thank you.

Blake Essig with the very latest from Tokyo.

To Italy now, where all schools and universities have been ordered to close for more than a week and all sporting events in the hardest-hit areas will be canceled to contain Europe's worst outbreak of the virus. We have details now from Ben Wedeman reporting from Milan.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Italian government is taking ever more draconian measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Wednesday, the cabinet ordered all schools and universities in the entire country to remain closed until at least the 15th of March.

They have also imposed new restrictions on sporting activities, this in a country that is mad about sports. The numbers, however, continue to send a grim message about the situation in this country. The number of recorded coronavirus cases has reached 3,089, with a death toll of 107.

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WEDEMAN: The government is considering adding new red zones to the already 11 towns and villages under severe restrictions in the Bergamo Province, where authorities have seen a spike in new cases.

Driving home the gravity of the situation, Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte says the country's public health system, one of the best in the world, is increasingly overwhelmed by the number of new coronavirus patients -- I'm Ben Wedeman, CNN, reporting from Milan.

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VAUSE: The Iranian president Hassan Rouhani says the coronavirus has spread to nearly all 31 provinces with almost 3,000 confirmed cases, the most in the region. CNN's Sam Kiley has more on how Iran is grappling with this outbreak and a warning: his report contains some disturbing images.

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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grim ranks of the unburied clutter the floor of an Iranian morgue. Some of the coronavirus victims have to be treated with lime before burial. But those believed not to be infected can be interred unsullied and according to tradition here in the holy city of Qom.

ALI RAMEZANI, BEHESHT-E MASOUMEH MORGUE (through translator): What we are dealing with is how to handle the bodies of coronavirus victims versus non-coronavirus victims, as the instructions for burial are different for each.

KILEY (voice-over): The tests take time, delaying burials and straining the city's facilities.

RAMEZANI (through translator): This is the reason for the pileup.

KILEY (voice-over): With around 3,000 known infections and over 90 deaths from the epidemic, Iranian authorities have begun screening for more infections in Qom, the worst hit city after the capital, Tehran.

This mosque will be empty for Friday prayers for the second week in a row. The weekly services have been banned in cities across the country; 300,000 extra health workers have been drafted in to deal with Iran's expanding epidemic.

Citizens are instructed on how to avoid infection. Public transport hosed down with disinfectant. Under U.S. sanctions, Iran's oil industry and banking system have been crippled, making even humanitarian goods hard to come by.

There are fears that Iran may also be underestimating the scale of the epidemic it faces; the supreme leader, though, keen to dispel such anxieties. ALI KHAMENEI, IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER (through translator): This outbreak did not just happen in our country, you know and have heard it is happening in many countries today.

The difference is that many countries have kept it hidden. Our officials have been informing the public since the first day, with confidence, honesty and transparency. But some other countries are hiding the fact that the disease is more severe and more widespread.

KILEY (voice-over): Perhaps but across the Middle East Iran is being seen as a springboard for infection into other countries. There are few, if any, signs that the epidemic is being brought under control here -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

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VAUSE: Officials in California have declared a state of emergency after the first fatality from the virus. Authorities believe the victim became infected on a cruise ship that sailed between San Francisco and Mexico last month. That ship is currently being held at sea with thousands of passengers on board.

California's governor says health officials will soon be on board to test people who have developed flulike symptoms. So far California has confirmed 36 infections statewide. As a whole, the U.S. has reported 159 cases, 11 fatalities.

When it comes to deadly outbreaks of infectious diseases, nothing comes close to the Black Death in terms of the numbers killed, chaos caused, also known as the Great Plague, the Black Plague and the Pestilence.

In just five years, between 1346 and 1351, half of Europe's population was wiped out. The plague is believed to have originated from Hubei province, yes, in China, then traveled westward along the famous Silk Road trading route. Within a few years it reached Persia, what is known as Iran today, and then to Europe by Italy's port of Genoa.

This is the modern-day version of the Silk Road, it's called one belt, one road and as it so happens, the coronavirus is taking a very familiar path from Wuhan, where it was first detected, northward through Hubei province to the rest of the world.

Instead of years, it is happening in days or weeks. Iran and Italy are way points for the outbreak.

This is not to say the coronavirus is expected to wipe out half the population of Europe like the plague but there are lessons from history which are relevant today. Joining us now from Annapolis, Maryland, is medical historian, Merle Eisenberg.

Merle, thanks for being with us and clarifying a few points here.

MERLE EISENBERG, NATIONAL SOCIO-ENVIRONMENTAL SYNTHESIS CENTER: Thanks for having me. VAUSE: We are looking at a situation where there are some

coincidences here, some have described the one belt one world initiative, this multibillion dollar investment by China, building roads and rail and ports as a perfect pandemic freeway for the coronavirus.

During previous outbreaks, like SARS and MERS, there wasn't this level of connectivity.

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VAUSE: Is this one of the reasons why the virus is spreading so quickly to other countries?

Also notably, why most cases globally still have some kind of direct link to China, not a lot of community transmission.

EISENBERG: Yes, one thing to say, drawing on my experience here at the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, it's one thing to think about, it's how global connectivity works more broadly.

In the past, as you discussed, with the Black Death, the transmission routes were very similar. People follow the same routes over the same roads, the same mountain paths, as they've always done.

Global trade has always been a way in which, both in the past and today, disease outbreaks have spread so it is not surprising that is working in many ways the same way.

VAUSE: It's not surprising that a virus spreads along a busy train route, whether it's the 21st century or the 14th century, it does seem surprising that both outbreaks emerged from Hubei province in China. And that leads to a paranoia of outbreaks.

Something deadly and mysterious and horrible coming our way. It's almost a creation of how we look at things these, days right?

EISENBERG: That's very much. True you talked about the Black Death, whenever we think about the plague, right, with a capital T and a capital P with scared quotes around, it we always think about it in that way in this catastrophe. But there are two other large outbreaks of plague over the course of history. One happens 800 years before the Black Death in the 6th century and one happens around the year 1900, around the turn of the 20th century.

Both of those are actually quite different, both spread very far but their impact is still significantly less, I would suggest. If you look at the early 20th century one, it killed a lot of people in South Asia but somewhere like San Francisco, for example, there was five years of an outbreak and only 120 people died.

For those 120 people, it was obviously terrible and devastating. But it's a very small number obviously when you compare it to half of the population of Europe.

VAUSE: You get to the conclusion then, historical comparisons can only take you so far because these outbreaks seem to have their own individuality each time.

EISENBERG: That's exactly right, I mean you have to think about the locality in which things are happening and how governments react to them. Both in the past and in the present. We see that today, different countries around the world, different governments are pursuing different measures to try and stop the coronavirus.

Just in the past as well, obviously, some more limited ways to do it. But around the year 1900, people did the whole great rat catching endeavors to catch the rats that spread the plague, that was successful in some places and in some places it was not. But there is a whole host of local places that really matter how we address these issues.

VAUSE: It's one of a new picture for, you again in a historical context, one belt, one road project was meant to be an initiative by Xi Jinping to promote China as a world leader to connect the world and place China in the center of the trading world, if you like.

But when all the dust is cleared after this virus and this outbreak is done and dusted, could there be backlash?

Some blowback for China for this very project for allowing in the minds of some this virus to spread?

EISENBERG: I think, in the last 30 so years there has been a very similar narrative that has been told that has been called the outbreak narrative. There is always a foreign source of where the outbreak is. Governments always react to it and are criticized for their reaction to it. People kind of attack them for it.

There are whole hosts of persecutions and xenophobia that happens because of all that. If you just look at the newspaper coverage, the picture they always show is people in Asia with masks, whatever the story is about. That is often the image that is accompanying it. This is almost baked in to how we think about these things.

VAUSE: Explain to parallels between Iran and Italy both having a significant role in the spread of the plague and also in the spread of the coronavirus.

EISENBERG: Sure, it has to do with geographic positions more than anything else in the medieval period. Italy was a strong center of commercial trade and they have trade networks around the Mediterranean that reach all the way to central Asia, like Iran and things like, that. That is where you have that direct connection to Italian cities.

Something similar, it's a geographical position and where trade routes simply have to move across the Earth.

VAUSE: Thanks for being with us. We appreciate. It

EISENBERG: Thank you so much.

VAUSE: CNN is hosting a global town hall on the facts and fears of the coronavirus, that is Thursday night 10 pm Eastern, Friday morning at 11 am in Hong Kong.

For weeks life has been on hold as China tries to contain the coronavirus but economic costs have been huge with fears, the first recession in decades is now looming. More on that in a moment.

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VAUSE: Also ahead, Bloomberg out, Biden surging, Bernie Sanders looking for help from Elizabeth Warren, this is the new dynamic for the Democrats vying for the White House.

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VAUSE: With apologies to Elizabeth Warren who has yet suspend her campaign, but the race for the White House is now basically down to three old straight white men. A resurgent Joe Biden scored a surprisingly good night on Super Tuesday but Bernie Sanders' enthusiastic army of supporters did not to vote for him in the numbers he was hoping for and that, of course, Donald Trump is still in the running. More now from CNN's Arlette Saenz.

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JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They don't call it Super Tuesday for nothing.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Biden basking in a historical political comeback.

BIDEN: We were told when we got to Super Tuesday it would be over. Well, it may be over for the other guy.

SAENZ (voice-over): In the wake of Super Tuesday a major jolt to the race coming as billionaire Michael Bloomberg dropped his presidential bid and officially endorsed Biden.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D-NY), FORMER MAYOR OF NYC: I'm glad to say I endorsed Joe Biden and I hope you will join me in working to make him the next President of the United States of America.

SAENZ (voice-over): This after Bloomberg poured more than half a billion dollars of his own fortune into his race and only came up with one victory in American Samoa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's do it for Joe.

SAENZ (voice-over): It's the latest sign of the more moderate candidates coalescing around the former vice president. After a rocky start to his campaign Biden racking up wins in 10 Super Tuesday states with a sweep across the South, overtaking Bernie Sanders in the fight for delegates, with California still up for grabs.

BIDEN: I'm out here to report we are very much alive.

SAENZ (voice-over): Sanders' victories came in his home state of Vermont, Colorado and Utah and he is leading in California, where the campaign hopes to rack up delegates. But there are questions Sanders can expand the electorate as the contest has quickly turned into a two-person race.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joe has his ideas, his record, his vision for the future. I have mine and I look forward to a serious debate.

SAENZ (voice-over): Sanders already looking to the contest ahead, running new TV ads targeting Biden and attempting to tie himself to President Obama.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Great authenticity, great passion and is fearless.

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SAENZ (voice-over): One candidate's fate up in the air.

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SAENZ (voice-over): Elizabeth Warren, who had a disappointing showing on Tuesday, including a brutal loss in her home state of Massachusetts.

Warren assessing the state of her campaign. But one of her advisers says her biggest decision isn't whether to end the campaign but whether to throw her support behind Biden or Sanders.

Michael Bloomberg spoke with Joe Biden on Wednesday and told him he's willing to help him in any way he can. Bloomberg not only has a massive amount of cash but he also has extensive field organizations across the country in a lot of those states that are coming up in a contest in the coming weeks ahead.

And Bloomberg's team is working to figure out how they can best leverage that to help Biden going forward -- Arlette Saenz, CNN, Los Angeles.

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VAUSE: Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College and Ethan Bearman, talk radio host in Los Angeles, both join us now from L.A.

Good to see you both. Let's start with the new ad from Sanders's campaign. We saw a clip of it just in before. We heard Obama praising Bernie Sanders in Obama's own words.

But did we?

Listen to this.

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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Bernie is somebody who although I don't know as well, because he wasn't obviously in my administration, has the virtue of saying exactly what he believes, great authenticity, great passion and is fearless.

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VAUSE: So Caroline, "who I don't know as well, because he was not in my cabinet," were the words that were taken out. That's when Obama was comparing Bernie to Hillary Clinton, which he knew better. It's not a hanging offense but it does look kind of desperate.

CAROLINE HELDMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, certainly. He's attending to appeal to African American voters, who Joe Biden is now winning overwhelmingly about 8 out of 10. And if you look at what jolted or catapulted him back from the dead if you will in the 72 hours coming up to Super Tuesday, it was that South Carolina win and African American voters.

And Bernie is polling better with young voters who don't turn out to vote at high enough rates to have the impact they should. He also polls high with Latinx voters. But at the end of the day he's trying to expand his coalition with black voters because that's really playing a key role in what's happened with Biden in the last couple of days.

VAUSE: Ethan, taking the dodgy moment of the commercial to one side, that's some tryst with Sanders, from king of the kids on Monday, calling from the revolution, to embracing the establishment on Wednesday.

BEARMAN: It's actually hypocritical and not very consistent because that's one of the big arguments in favor of Bernie Sanders. We know who he is, he's been consistent for 50 years but when he starts losing to Joe Biden and everybody starts getting behind Joe Biden and endorsing him now he starts embracing the establishment?

It's not a good look for Bernie. Look, he has struggled, as Caroline just said, with African American voters. He struggled with them in 2016, he's struggling with them now in 2020.

That is a core base of the Democratic Party. While young people are wonderful at showing up to protest and voicing their opinion and getting out there on social media, they're not showing up at the polls. They never do.

Election after election, sadly, but Bernie needs to stay consistent if he does wants to win this and this is just a chink in his armor.

VAUSE: What's notable is that both Sanders and Biden say the rest of this campaign will be a contest of ideas, policy, not personal attacks. Here's what they said on Wednesday.

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BIDEN: What we can't let happen in the next few weeks is let this primary turn into a campaign of negative attacks.

SANDERS: My hope is that in the coming months we will be able to debate and discuss the very significant differences that we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Caroline, any Democrats still yet to make up their mind, waiting for the policy debate on infrastructure, maybe immigration, before they decide they want Sanders or Biden?

Or is it pretty much done?

HELDMAN: It's definitely going to be a really bloody battle. Whatever they said today, they'll toss out tomorrow. This is a two-man race. They immediately need to get it down to a one-man race.

There's a bigger concern for the party moving forward right, that if you have the Sanders folks not turning out to vote for the moderates, for Biden and moderate Biden supporters are going to see Sanders as being too left-wing. So the party actually needs to come to grips with whether or not they'll have a moderate candidate or left-wing candidate and they need to do it right away and the way they'll do that is really I think through a bloodbath the next couple of weeks.

VAUSE: This will go negative and ugly, despite what they say.

But Ethan, there's this lot of talk that if Biden does win this nomination then what happens to the Bernie supporters?

Perhaps the better question might be how should Biden win them over?

What does he have to do? BEARMAN: I don't know he has to win them over. I think they need to realize the threat in the White House and do the right thing.

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BEARMAN: They made that mistake in 2016. Look at what happened.

Is that what people want, four more years of Trump?

It is that simple of a question and this idea that they are not going to go negative is utterly ridiculous. Every time we talk about that, the people themselves prove they want it to go negative and they respond to negative ads way too strongly.

Here's what it is, we need Bernie Sanders to get behind the right person right now as soon as possible and by the way the biggest issue nobody ever wants to talk about with Bernie Sanders is he's an independent who chooses to be a Democrat every four years when it's time to run for president. That is irking so many people in the Democratic Party and this is his

opportunity to show he really is a team player in the Democratic Party and get behind Biden as soon as possible.

VAUSE: Team player/Bernie Sanders, not words often spoken together. We should mention Elizabeth Warren is still in the race. That's a point not lost on the U.S. president who tweeted,

"Wow, if Elizabeth Warren wasn't in the race, Bernie Sanders would have easily won Massachusetts, Minnesota and Texas. Not to mention those other states. Our modern-day Pocahontas won't go down in history as a winner but she may very well go down as the all-time great spoiler."

Caroline, did she inflict that much pain on Bernie Sanders?

And if so, how much pressure will she be under to have the progressive wing of the Democratic Party to bow out?

HELDMAN: It's interesting to hear Trump echo Russian talking points and use racism in his critique of Elizabeth Warren but he's wrong about this. Today it is clear that only about 40 percent of Elizabeth Warren voters who would otherwise go for Bernie Sanders. A lot of Elizabeth Warren supporters are Clinton Democrats. They're moderate Democrats. They want to see a woman in the White House. It's been 240 years.

And if this election has taught us anything is even with a #MeToo movement and a massive, historic Women's March protest, six women running in the race very seriously, women are still not taken seriously for this office.

You essentially have to walk on water and you are held to a different standard. But Donald Trump is wrong in thinking she was a spoiler for Bernie Sanders. Again, an overstatement if you look at the data.

VAUSE: Data and facts, President Trump, again, words not often used in the same sentence.

Even if you're looking at Joe Biden as the nominee, which seems more likely every day at this point, is Elizabeth Warren a possible V.P. choice?

The other one is Stacey Abrams, who ran for governor here in Georgia and missed out.

Where do things stand as far as you see it?

BEARMAN: I think if Elizabeth -- Senator Warren by the way -- is smart in this case -- and she's brilliant by the way and I have utmost respect for her -- if she wants to play it smart right now, she works out a deal, negotiates a deal with the Biden team and I think she's an ideal Secretary of the Treasury.

The vice president needs to be somebody representing the next generation in the Democratic Party so it's not just our septed (sic) -- I can't even say the word -- 70-plus-year olds right now.

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BEARMAN: We really need the next generational leaders to get the support of the establishment now. So that vice presidential candidate really should be somebody from either Gen X and/or younger and not just another Boomer.

VAUSE: To Caroline's point this was a field that had so much promise and was so diverse on many different levels and now we're down to two old white guys. It is what it is.

Caroline and Ethan, thank you both.

BEARMAN: Thanks, John.

HELDMAN: Thank you.

VAUSE: Still to come, China struggling to get people back to work. Even the coronavirus outbreak appears to be easing there. Now there's concern its economy could shrink for the first time in decades.

Also desperation is met with violence. The migrant crisis at the Turkey-Greece border turns even more harrowing (ph).

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: As the number of new coronavirus cases continue to fall in China, the focus now turns to restarting the economy. Businesses and factories have been closed for weeks. Tourism is at a standstill, bringing concerns of the first recession in decades.

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CNN's Steven Jiang is live in Beijing. So Steven, what can they actually do at this point, because you know, this is a country which is used to, at a minimum, 6 percent economic growth. If the economy falls into recession, that is huge.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER: That's right, a very sobering reference, there, John. The first economic contraction since 1976. Now, partly because of -- due to this very shocking indicator we have just seen, the purchasing managers' index, really plummeted in February, along with many other data points, actually. For example, sales in passenger cars dropped a whopping 80 percent last month nationwide in this market, which of course, is the world's biggest auto market.

And you know, these figures are probably not surprising, given the extended closure of businesses nationwide.

And many companies are still actually struggling to find workers because of all the travel restrictions and quarantine rules implemented by local authorities. I think that's why Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired another top leadership meeting on Wednesday, stressing the importance of restoring economic and social order compatible, in his words, with the status of the outbreak outside of the epicenter. He's really trying to bring back economic growth at an early date.

Now, the government, of course, has announced some measures -- tax relief, fee exemptions -- but we are expecting to see more. They're also focusing on stabilizing employment, which of course, is crucial to maintaining social stability. You know, this country's service industry, service actor employs 360 million people nationwide, and many of them are still out of jobs because of all the closure.

But the authorities are pointing to some promising figures that track the resumption of operations by large factories. But the key is still to have more small and medium-sized ones to really return to business.

But John, according to some local media reports, we are already seeing some small business owners resorting to faking resumption of business due to a government pressure, some of them leading machineries idling for hours, leaving lights, computers, and AC units on in empty offices as government inspectors check power consumption figures as a sign of resumption of business -- John.

VAUSE: Only in China. I guess the question is, before the coronavirus outbreak happened, the economy was struggling. There was a trade war with the United States. There had been a slowdown.

And so how much can the government actually do at this point? How much ammunition, I guess, does it have an reserve to jump start this economy and to get it to where it needs it to be, and over what period of time?

JIANG: That's right. That is a big question. And they are, of course -- announced some of these piecemeal measures, but many economists are still not expecting to see, you know, large stimulus packages to be rolled out nationwide, at this stage. And there are also at this point, not expecting to ease landing nationwide as they've been, of course, dealing with a huge debt problem, especially at the local level.

So they are very constrained, and they are still, you know, putting on a very brave face, at least publicly saying they have a lot of tools in their tool box. But what these tools really are, I think, really, remains to be seen. And the next few weeks are, I think, very crucial to see whether the government really does that analysis in terms of stimulating the economy, and really have the economic engine revved up again -- John.

VAUSE: It will be interesting to see what they do, because when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail. Steven, thank you. Good to see you. Steven Jiang live in Beijing.

Let's check the markets now in Asia. They're up for the 4th straight day. We'll check the numbers here. The NIKKEI is up by almost one and 15 -- there you go, 1.1 percent. Hong Kong will be almost at 2 percent positive territory. Shanghai up almost two percent, as well. And the Seoul KOSPI up by a 1 percent mark, as well. The rally in Asia follows a massive rally on Wall Street on Wednesday.

That was another big day for stocks there.

Now, U.K. budget airline Flybe has collapsed, all flights grounded. A drop in travel caused by the coronavirus added to the struggling company's problems.

The airline is warning passengers not to go to the airport unless they have alternate flight plans.

Still to come, Turkey's military actions in Syria sent fists flying -- sorry. Please, in a moment. In Turkey's parliament. The brawl break out there on Wednesday during an opposition lawmaker's speech, he accused President Erdogan of disrespecting the Turkish soldiers who died last week in Syria.

State media reports that prosecutors have now launched an investigation over a possible insulting of the president.

And Turkey's president opened the border to Europe after the soldiers were killed, and the move has created a crisis. Authorities are blocking thousands of migrants who are trying to enter the country, and the stand-off has turned violent as CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know her name. She's too distraught to speak. But you really don't need words to explain the suffering she's seen.

Those with her tell us her husband was killed at the border.

Turkey says Greek border guards opened fire on refugees and migrants gathered at its border on Wednesday, killing one and injuring 5 others. The Greek government denies using live ammunition and calls it fake news, fabricated by Turkey. But it's not just the Turkish government making these accusations.

(on camera): We're not allowed past this police line, but the situation seems chaotic. We've seen several ambulances coming in and out.

(voice-over): This man made out of the area where thousands are gathered by the border fence. He says they were protesting peacefully.

"He said, Go away, and they shot at us," he says. "The Greek government is openly firing live ammunition," an accusation Greece categorically denies.

We spoke with a Syrian refugee who also says he witnessed the incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH (on camera): He saw one person, he says, hit in the chest by a tear-gas canister.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

KARADSHEH: We're also hearing pops of -- it's unclear of what's being fired and who's firing what.

(voice-over): At the local hospital, where the injured were taken, Turkish health officials are keen to show us a photo of a bullet they claim was removed from one of the wounded.

(on camera): Because the Greek side is saying they didn't use live ammunition. They did not use bullets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We certainly removed it.

KARADSHEH (voice-over): Thirty-year-old Sashar Omar (ph), a Pakistani laborer, says he saw people gathered at the border fence. He thought that they might be opening the gate to enter Greece, so he ran up.

This mobile phone footage shows Omar being carried away moments after he was shot in the leg.

All he wanted, he says, was a better life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No business. No jobs.

KARADSHEH: Back at the border, a steady stream of new arrivals, undeterred by the news of violence and Europe's determination to keep them out. Some say they know Turkey is using them as leverage, trying to get more support from Europe. People so desperate for a different life, that they're willing to risk everything for this uncertainty.

Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, on the Turkish-Greek border.

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VAUSE: And now we'll take a small break. You're taking CNN. Back in 2 minutes.

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[00:41:28[

VAUSE: There was a time when Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had an all- woman guard for personal protection, and it seems after Super Tuesday, Joe Biden has one, as well. Here's Jeanne Moos.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like a lioness protecting her cubs, Joe Biden got between her husband and an animal rights protester. And seconds after that demonstrator was hustled away another popped onstage. This time Jill Biden was hands on, pushing back.

No penalty for holding in this key block. Read one tweet, "If any NFL teams are scouting for a right guard, Jill Biden is available."

Though the takedown was performed by Biden senior advisor Symone Sanders, who wrapped her arms around the demonstrator. That's Symone in the striped jacket, dragging the woman off the stage, and later tweeting, "I broke a nail."

Evidently, a long nail, a small price to pay.

One website added a sport soundtrack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out, watch out, watch out, watch out.

MOOS: Jill Biden was proposed for secretary of defense. Just last month, she pushed back on a male heckler headed for her husband as the crowd chanted to drown out the protests.

JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: You've got to protect those you love, right?

MOOS: Back when Kamala Harris was still in the race --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, hey, hey, hey!

MOOS: -- a MoveOn.org moderator stood up to a protester.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much, sir, for your big idea.

MOOS: Kamala's husband rushed onstage to help, his protective juices flowing, captured in this photo.

Now it's Joe Biden's spouse being celebrated as Wonder Woman, and senior aide Symone Sanders --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She reminded me of Kevin Costner in "The Bodyguard."

MOOS: Kevin Costner took a bullet for Whitney Houston, while Joe has playfully nibbled on Jill's fingers when she waved her hand too close for comfort. Better guard her body, Joe. She needs those fingers to protect you.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

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VAUSE: That's a nice way to end.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT is up next.

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[00:45:35]

(WORLD SPORT)

[00:57:28]

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